Monday, December 26, 2011

Weekend Update: Christmas Edition!

Merry Christmas, everyone! I know it's a day late but I stayed far away from the computer yesterday! We had a different Christmas this year but lots of fun anyway!

Typically, we see EVERYONE at Christmas. We have generally gone between Tifton and Roswell for our Christmas break. It's really, really fun but really, really exhausting and now that we have a child old enough to sort of "get it," we made the executive decision to travel before Christmas this year and be at our own home on Christmas. We realize this isn't for everyone, but it's what made sense this year and will probably make sense for us for the next few years with small children.

On Friday afternoon we loaded up to head to Tifton. We had several things to do in Tifton so we decided to drive down for the day. We stopped by the Perry's to pick up a few baby items - a bassinet being one thing - and to visit with them since we hadn't seen Nurse Shelley since James' birthday party!

We went to Mama's after stopping by the Perry's and had a visit with Lib! We were so excited to see her! We couldn't remember if it was February or May when we last saw her, but it's been too long either way!

That evening I had my annual high school girls' Christmas Party at the Bowers' house. We thought it was our tenth year but turned out to be the ELEVENTH year. How did that happen? We SO enjoy going to it each Christmas. I have the best time visiting because a lot of the people that come I only see there! It's so nice!

When I picked Eddie up at his mama and daddy's house after the party he and James were both asleep. Apparently, they'd had a lot of fun hanging out with Grandmama and Granddaddy! We got home around midnight and James never woke up - HALLELUJAH! :)

Saturday was spent running lots and lots of errands and getting last minute Christmas stuff done. I had all of my shopping done but I needed to get a few stocking stuffers for Eddie. My husband was sweet enough (and brave enough!) to go to Publix for me on Christmas Eve afternoon. AND he took James with him. I think he deserves an award! They ran a few gift-buying errands, too, I think.

James and I had a fun afternoon activity while Daddy was making hamburgers for lunch. He and I decided that if Santa gets cookies, the reindeer should have something, too! So we whipped up some reindeer food. (This was a great distraction for him. He was having a HORRIBLE day and we needed something to stop the whining and fit pitching. We are going through a really, really rough stage at home right now. I am almost 100% certain it is the storm-before-the-storm because there's been a LOT of talk about Baby Brother lately. He's fine when he's with other people, but he is NOT fine for me. He's having a really hard time understanding that he must mind me or there are consequences. I hate the consequences as much as he does.) The Reindeer Food recipe is as follows:

Step 1: Hand toddler a bowl and spoon.

Step 2: Make him pose for the camera.

Step 3: Add oatmeal and cranberries to the bowl and have him stir, stir, stir!

We planned to go to the 6:00 Christmas Eve service but everyone laid down for a nap and slept until it would've been time to leave. Whoops!

After James' bath we put on jammies and made Christmas cookies for Santa! He had the BEST time doing this. He was so excited about Santa coming!

Soon after putting the cookies out, two Christmas Miracles occurred: 1. James fell asleep without complaint, and 2. Eddie did NOT fall asleep in the bed with James and I didn't have to wake him up an hour later!

Santa and Mrs. Claus worked hard on putting toys together and watching Christmas Vacation. They have learned that there is a need to put toys together ahead of time. I think this must be something that all parents learn as they go along. :)

I got up at 6:15 to get breakfast in the oven so that we could see what Santa brought, eat, and get ready for church at a decent time. I made two things this year for our breakfast - monkey bread and hashbrown casserole. I'll post both recipes later in the week because they were GREAT.

With all of the noise in the kitchen, the boys woke up as well. James had gotten in the bed with us earlier so after a quick diaper change both guys were ready to see what Santa brought!

James racked up on the loot this year. He has enjoyed almost everything that Santa brought him!

A Magna Doodle (BIG hit!), a tee, bat, baseball, basketball, and football, a GRILL (the biggest hit!), a doctor's kit, Elmo costume (the flop - he asked and asked for this for Halloween this year so I got it on clearance and he says, "It tary!" (It's scary!), the Uno farm game, a cow puzzle, Dumbo, and The Lion King.

A little mid-morning blood pressure check!

After breakfast I started feeling horrible. I'm still battling nausea if I don't eat quickly enough after getting up AND if I don't have enough protein first thing. I obviously missed both of those. I made the executive decision not to go to church feeling awful so we stayed home. We took a little break for me to lay down for a while and then we opened our presents to each other. James got some preschool DVDs, a Tag Junior, big brother books, and a few other odds and ends from us. We all enjoyed our presents!

After more naps we had a visit from Poppy and Cacky and Grandmama and Granddaddy! Little man was WILD about this. He ran around like a crazy person trying to show them everything. It's too bad that it rained all day because he needed to get outside!

We enjoyed visiting before having an early supper with everyone.

James was wiped out after everyone left. He ASKED to take a bath at 6:30 when everyone was gone and then ASKED to be put to bed at 7:30. Crazy! I fell asleep while Eddie was giving James a bath and woke up at 8:30. Eddie and I had a snack and watched TV. He was asleep by 9:30 and after a bath I was in bed by 10:30. This is just way unusual behavior for all of us!

We had a great Christmas and thoroughly enjoyed everything about it! I'll share a little more later in the week! We hope you and yours were able to share Christmas with your families and enjoy celebrating Jesus' birth!

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I'm a wife to a fantastic husband and teacher-turned-stay-at-home mama to two beautiful busy boys. I'm a lover of books, cool weather, bundling up, painted toenails, coffee, movie theater popcorn for supper, Diet Coke, sleeping late, being lazy, the beach, slow-cooker meals, spending time with long-time friends, and cooking. I'm not a domestic goddess, just a regular girl trying to run a household and keep it all together!